Saturday River Clean up

We have a great Natural Resources Department in my city. The county is no slouch either, and there are regular nature-y events scheduled with each. Yesterday, there was a trash pick up scheduled along a section of the Poudre River.

Mr W was less than enthused, but we rode our bikes the few blocks down to the park, got our trash bags and walked toward the river. I settled in to pick up the pieces of a broken bottle, while Mr W started climbing on the branches of a willow tree. All of the sudden he shouts, "There's a coyote!" Sure enough, I saw just the tail of something, tearing toward a field. Coooooool, we agreed. And he knew what it was (not dog, fox or wolf).

A bit later, I was picking up some old clothes (why people leave clothing by the river and don't come back for it, I don't know) and there was a little garter snake curled up inside. Mr W wanted (with his gloves on) to hold it, which I thought was great, so we spent a few minutes looking at it, going over why it had characteristics of a non-poisonous snake and then let it go. It was just the right size to not get creeped out by.

For a kid whose stated preference is to stay inside and play video games, this was a nice reminder that he does like doing the nature thing. I like that the park is just a few blocks from here, and will try to remember to get down there more regularly this summer.